Every Saturday, Pastor Mike and Sherry write our congregation a letter of encouragement as well an introduction for the sermon topic he will preach the following morning. Below you will find the letter from July 27th, 2024. To watch this sermon, follow this link: Celebrate Our Differences, a sermon on Romans 14:1-9, in which Pastor discusses our struggles with change, acceptance, unity in diversity, and how unity in Christ is not the same as uniformity.
Week of July 28, 2024
First, thank you all so much for your prayers and support while we were gone on vacation. That’s not something we do often and the time we spent with our family was WONDERFUL with lots of pictures and sweet memories.
Second, I look forward to being with all of you tomorrow and sharing with you from the Word of God. We will be in Romans 14 verses 1-9. This is a powerful message for the church at large and for each of us as individuals. Chapter 14 and much of chapter 15 are perhaps the most difficult and challenging chapter in Romans if not in all of Paul’s letters. It deals with acceptance. Not God’s acceptance of us but of our acceptance of one another and the discipline it takes on each person’s part not to jump to conclusions or judge others without adequate information. Let me start us with a little story I read recently:
A young couple moved into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the washing outside.
“That laundry is not very clean; she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap,” said the young woman.
Her husband looked on, remaining silent.
Every time her neighbor hung her washing out to dry, the young woman made the same comments.
A month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, “Look, she’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?”
The husband replied, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”
And so it is with life… What we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look.
So don’t be too quick to judge others, especially if your perspective of life is clouded by anger, jealousy, negativity, unfulfilled desires or fear of change.
These sorts of things happen all too often. For example yesterday Sherry and I stopped at Safeway to pick up a few things after my Rheumatoid Arthritis Infusion, which had left me a little wobbly and unsteady. At one point I was standing in an aisle looking for an item and Sherry was a ways from me. I was not very steady and a lady walked by me and made a rather rude comment about my “public drunkenness”. She obviously made an assessment void of the proper information. If that’s ever happened to you, you know how hurtful it can be. (In this incident I found it quite comical.)
Paul makes his purpose statement for this section in Verse 7 of the 15th chapter when he says, “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” So, perhaps a very good rule of thumb to use is before we judge should be to ask ourselves, “Are our windows clean?” and, “Jesus how have you accepted me?” Perhaps the best thing we can all do is to allow Jesus to lead in every relationship step we take.
Closing for now and getting this sent along with the “Listening Guide” for tomorrow. I pray that I will see you in service. If not in service, please join us on line. Don’t forget to pray for one another. Make sure you check the current prayer list in the bulletin Jessica sent out. We love you all and we are grateful God called us to this marvelous fellowship.
In the Service of the King,
Mike and Sherry
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